Autumn Term At Crepey Towers

[QueenQueenie]

I did it!

Hello, may I join you? I am a friend (and neighbour) of addle, so another South Londoner, crepey (46), I've been reading and enjoying your thread. Freelance writer and editor, under achieving but quite like my life as it is, have a grumpy and demanding wonderful dd who all being well will be off to university next year, and a younger ds who likes football and X box.

My father took me. I shuddered and couldn't wait to get away. He pressed a whole fiver into my hand as he left, which was extraordinarily extravagant for him.

Hey, Lalsy, we should start a collective...

Yep, freelance editorial collective to buy boots, cocktails and fish.

Tough job, someone has to do it.

I have TEN years until I have an empty nest and in that TEN years, I only have two years that are exam free

Don't tell me I'm wrong to look forward to that...

I am writing about stretchmarks.

What happened to my life? I feel like the bloke in King Lear saying the wheel has come full circle: I am here. I suppose I should be glad nobody's prising my eyes out and saying Out Vile Jelly.

D'you remember my colleagues who lectured me on how stretch marks could be prevented if you used creams from early on enough? One of them said it was the thing she dreaded most in the world.

The other one has now had a baby -and because I am really really evil person I cannot help hoping she has acquired a few

MI - in the extensive hit parade of things I dread, stretchmarks wouldn't make it into the top 1000...

She was the one who talked about wrinkles in the way most of us talk about melanoma.

Stretchmarks fade anyway - mine are barely noticeable when I swan around in my bikini, and much less of a worry than saggy everything else!

I feel a teeny bit sorry for people like that, as it must be quite sad to suffer from such a lack of imagination.

I'm working on the words of someone who became paraplegic because of an accident.

Hi lalsy welcome to the coven.
Stretch marks you say . Hmm
Dd had a big growth spurt and has quite a few- what do you do to get rid? I know she slathers on palmers coco butter a lot.
Tis veins of the varicose variety I have. Me and dsis have inherited them from ddad. Thanks dad
I fear more wretched surgery may be required.

I have no memory at all of being dropped at uni. I think I was just tipped out at the airport one September day with two mahoosive art portfolios and a rucksack. In those days it was about £500 return to NI on the plane so I doubt they even expected to see me for several years.

viscose is definitely manmade out of old Sellotape and grated toothpicks by the sound of it .
Still it'll wash well . Can't do a poloneck wilbs but on you yes

Hi lalsy - welcome! You're not far from me if you're near addle. Can I pick your brains about your X-box loving ds? We are considering something like that for ds1 when he hits 13 next year (we currently have a Wii and a 3DS that the kids share and that's it - poor buggers don't even have a computer to use at the moment as it's bust). Is that a good/bad/mad idea? Are there games for Xbox that do not involve mass slaughter or running down pedestrians en route to buying crack? I'm sure there must be, but any suggestions would be great.

Am going to order the sellotape and toothpick polo neck. Give that I have a couple of pairs of trews that have sellotape holding up the hems , it seems like I'm made for viscose.

Hi lalsy! You will be not far from me either!

Wilbur, DS has an xbox - think he got it the Christmas before last? Or maybe his 11th birthday TBH, it doesn't get a whole lot of use (especially not in the summer) but he does play on it when his mates come round (which has actually not been for ages! Fifa.
He has mumbled about getting CoD, but we just say no! Sometimes his mates bring other games round though.

PNJ's are my all-time favourite Why no good for you, CV?

Hello wilbur - aha - was it you who mentioned your dc school has online catering surveillance thing? I rememberthinking that sounds a lot like what my dc school has just done. Possibly the same place...

X-box - well, he loves it, and does go on it a lot when he gets the chance but he has learned to manage it OKish I think - and I use it as a blatant bribe. He has a football game which he loves and minecraft which seems to involve building water slides, roof terraces and other garden features. He plays online with his friends a lot. I think minecraft is considered a bit wet - he is 14 and most of his friends seem to have COD (which I imagine as like Breaking Bad with prizes so won't let him get) - but he likes it. Neither of those seem particularly addictive as these things go - the football games come in game sized chunks.

Aha - you can get minecraft for Xbox? I think that might have sold it. He had downloaded it to the computer, which is probably what broke it . He would love that as he likes to play it with a friend who is in hospital a lot, so ability to play online is good, in this case. Will have to police ds2 though, he is one of those kids who would end up playing Grand Theft Auto with a "friend" in Jakarta... Actually dh has CoD for the Wii (kids def not allowed) and he is so sad and old that he was unable to kill the watermelon that they set up for you as a practise target .

Lalsy - yes, I can now check ds1's carb intake from my desk . If it's a school where Thursday waffles are the big draw, it's probably the same.

This thread is top of S&B again so I'd like to say 'hello' again as I was drawn to open it. I'm in suburbia outside SW London, on a short break from work for rest & kids but returning soon. I won't be able to keep up

... once I start work but I'll read, enjoy and contribute meanwhile. (I was aftermay, NC for the LC thread, nothing more intriguing.)

That sounds perfect then - I discovered my ds demonstrating his elegant staircase the other day online to a friend . Waffles important, not sure about Thursdays and can think of no valid reason for asking. Thursday has a shorter lunchbreak 'tho - that the one?

Hello everyone else and sorry for lunch system hijack.

Hello Lalsy - so pleased you are here!

BD - dd is studying history and based in Ranmoor; pics I've seen so far look remarkably like party night in Tooting

MI - not meaning to dwell on the past, but thinking of JMcG, were you in the garden production of Jungle Book? I was a particularly unimpressive wolfcub, just awful at doing the required gambolling though my wolf mask survived until dd was about 6

Oooh, Ranmoor was a boys hall back in my day Do they still do the Pyjama Jump?

I came and watched and loved it. My particularly favourite was the elephants...

Hello from a different corner of sarf London

Things are very busy here so no time to post or really keep up. Am deciding between 2 lovely sets of clarks boots as rec on here and looking forward to more coverage than summer clothes permit. Glad yo have them back in storage.

Sympathies to all saying au revoir to a child at uni. My eldest is only 8 so I've got ten years to enjoy first. My mum was a teacher and couldn't get the time off to take me to university. Instead she stuffed an envelope with about 50 quid in it into my case with a lovely letter for me to find as I unpacked. My dad was very business like but I could see he felt a little wistful. Gosh it's so long ago now. I look at the drs qualifications when I am in the surgery and think there must be an error, as noone can be qualified if they left university on 2007! They still look about 12 though.

Hi all.. 8 years before I get rid of ds - meanwhile attempting to prove we read we are sharing this
Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains... Try that after a bottle of wine ;).

thank you BTM - no really, thank you. every time I miss her I'll watch that film ... only half way through so far, but esp. like the old chap in cap inan early scene; less so the dangling bits later

i don't remember going off myself except for my ridiculous trunk that we were informed was essential and my navy-blue Laura Ashley cord dress that needed to be washed after about 2 hours' wear. and wasn't.